


A Flicker of Awakening

by RandyPandy



Series: Countless Realms [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chrom!Brady, Chrom!Cynthia, Chrom!Inigo, Chrom!Kjelle, Chrom!Morgan, Cremating Bodies to Prevent Risen, Family Bonding, Female Marc | Morgan, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Libra!Owain, Lissa!Morgan, Maiden!Lucina, Male Marc | Morgan, Sibling Bonding, The Future Past Timeline (Fire Emblem), cousin bonding, somewhat dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24854053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandyPandy/pseuds/RandyPandy
Summary: “You’re all alone now, princess. You can’t harm me anymore, and you are going to die soon, anyways. It will be more fun to watch you instead of putting you out of your misery.”With Falchion shattered, the Fire Emblem gone, and all of her friends now dead, Lucina had doubted that there was still a flicker of hope remaining, but she was glad to have been proven wrong.
Relationships: Azur | Inigo & Lucina, Eudes | Owain & Lucina
Series: Countless Realms [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821307
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	A Flicker of Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> This can be considered an AU of [Whisper a Prayer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22180237) and contains a lot of the ideas that did not make it in there. This particular AU is loosely based off of The Future Past and could have happened had Chrom’s army from the game timeline not intervened.

Lucina should not have been surprised that everything went wrong, but that was indeed what had happened.

She had managed to weaken Grima, but it had been at the cost of everything that she had held dear. Severa, Gerome, and Laurent’s dead bodies and broken weapons lay scattered around her, and it was all she could do to not look at them and sob. And to make matters worse, the unAwakened Falchion had not been strong enough to seal Grima, and with the lack of Naga in the world, it had _shattered_.

Weaponless, alone, and afraid, Lucina had been able to do nothing but watch as Grima taunted her.

_" **You’re all alone now, princess. You can’t harm me anymore, and you are going to die soon, anyways. It will be more fun to watch you instead of putting you out of your misery.”**_

And then he’d left her there, alone. Her friends bodies were gone (the thought of them being used as Risen made her feel sick), the Binding Shield and Vert were gone, and there was _nothing_ there.

Lucina sank to her knees.

Severa, Gerome, and Laurent were dead. And if Grima had been right, then her cousin and the rest of their friends that she had sent after the Gemstones were dead, too.

“Hope will never die,” she whispered to herself. But right now, looking at the death surrounding her, she didn’t believe her own words.

She thought of her parents: Chrom, Exalt of Ylisse who had loved her and trained her with a sword, who had told her that he had named her ‘Lucina’ because she was a beacon of light for the world… she thought of Imogen, her mother, a simple village maiden, unsuited for battle but kind and loving and had been a beloved queen and a wonderful mother.

She missed them so much. She wanted to see them all again. But that would never happen. Lucina had nobody now. No friends, no family, no one. The world was dying, if not already dead, only populated by Grima, herself, and an army of undead Risen.

 _Perhaps it would be better to just… give up_. _Owain, Inigo, Brady, Yarne, Cynthia, Kjelle, Noire, Nah, Severa, Gerome, Laurent… Father, Mother, Aunt Lissa… I am sorry. I can’t do this anymore, not when there is no one else to save._

Sinking to the ground so that her cheek was resting against the dusty, cool stone, Lucina closed her eyes.

* * *

Lucina stirred when she heard movement beside her.

“Lucina! You must dispel your slumber, my illustrious cousin, for the world shall be plunged into darkness without your beacon of light!”

There was only one person that spoke like that. With a gasp, Lucina’s eyes flew open and she sat up, clutching at the figure in front of her. Blond hair, green eyes, freckles on his face…

“O-Owain!” She nearly sobbed, throwing her arms around his neck. “Owain, you’re alive!”

“Hark, she awakens— whoa!” Owain stumbled back, but he wrapped his arms around her gingerly, patting her back.

Lucina squeezed her cousin to her body almost desperately, burying her face in his neck. The clothes he was wearing were unfamiliar, but that didn’t matter. This was her cousin, her family, someone that had _survived_ Grima despite the dragon taunting her.

“I’m so glad! I was told that y-you and the others had been killed, and…” She glanced up at his face “Owain, where are Inigo, Brady, and Yarne? They were with you, weren’t they?”

“…” Owain looked uncomfortable. “…Lucina, I apologize. I am not the cousin that you know.”

Lucina frowned, trying to understand. For all his crypticness, she had never had any problems understanding him. “I don’t understand. You’re Owain Lowell, aren’t you?” He nodded silently. “Then of course you are my cousin.”

Owain released her, but not before squeezing her shoulders. For the first time, Lucina noted that his clothes were _not_ the bright yellow Myrmidon outfit that her cousin loved to wear, but something akin to what her _father_ used to wear in a shade of yellow. And his hair, while still blond, was a slightly different shade than the color she remembered.

Something glinted at Owain’s side, and she automatically glanced down, and her heart stopped.

Falchion.

“Falchion… Falchion was shattered,” she whispered hesitantly.

“Lucina, my tale is long and inexplicable,” Owain said kindly to her. “We shall retreat from the palace and regroup with the others, and all shall be explained.”

Furrowing her brow, Lucina wondered whether this was a trap by Grima. Regardless, even if it was a trap… well, there wasn’t anything that she could do. Perhaps Grima wanted to toy with her before killing her. Oh, if she saw the Fell Dragon, she would just bitterly tell him to finish her off quickly.

Owain held his hand out. Lucina stared at it for a moment, before slipping it into his, and walking with him as the two of them left the ruined palace.

“Don’t despair, cousin,” he said softly. “Naga is always with us.”

“…But Naga is dead,” Lucina managed to whisper.

Owain stopped, and turned to face her. “Alas, that is true; Naga is no more. But there are other worlds, other places through the mystical Dragon’s Gate, where those of Naga’s blood persist. It is from one such place that I have arrived from.”

If she translated that from Owain-speak, that meant… “You’re a version of my cousin from another world?” she asked in disbelief.

“Correct, Lucina,” he told her. “Once we reach the others, I shall explain everything, I swear.”

The others? Lucina had more questions, but despite how chatty she knew her Owain could be, this Owain seemed slightly different and wasn’t as chatty, so she chose not to ask at the moment. Instead, she just held his hand – it was warm, which meant he was alive, which meant that Lucina wasn’t _alone_ – and walked.

* * *

‘The others’ turned out to be the last people that she was expecting.

Lucina’s confusion only grew when she realized that Owain had led her to an abandoned house not too far from the destroyed Ylissean palace that was only in slightly better shape and had gestured to six others that were inside. There was a familiar Pegasus outside, one that she recognized as Cynthia’s, and her heart leapt slightly before Owain led her inside.

She recognized Inigo, Cynthia, Brady, and Kjelle right away, but what _didn’t_ look familiar to her were their blue hair and the way they were dressed as if they had once been royalty. It was extremely different compared to her Inigo’s light grey, Cynthia’s light brown, Brady’s blond, and Kjelle’s black. In fact, it looked like _her_ shade of blue.

All of them gasped when Owain and Lucina walked into the room, with Owain proudly announcing, “Rejoice, for I have found a Lucina! She has not fallen to darkness!”

Cynthia ran towards her and grabbed her hands, squeezing them tightly. “L-Luci? Is it really you? Ah, I’m so glad that you’re alive.”

Brady gave a loud sniffle as Inigo wiped at his own eyes, the two of them and Kjelle also running over, and before Lucina could even think, all five of the others had embraced her in a hug. Lucina’s eyes watered at the familiar feeling of being held, of having people that _loved_ her by her side.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who all of these people were. If Owain’s story had any semblance of truth, then they were from another world as well. She pulled back.

“…I’m really sorry, but can I please get an explanation as to what is going on here?”

“As I mentioned,” Owain started, “my tale is long and inexplicable. But I shall do my best to regale it.”

The short version of the story ended up being that there were many different worlds, where Grima had taken over and had won, and had destroyed Naga. As such a thing had never been meant to happen, the worlds had begun to destabilize. Lucina’s world was one such world that had started destabilizing, as had been the ones that belonged to the other five.

“And each of your worlds were different from each other?” Lucina asked. All five of them looked like they could be related to her – she could even see the Brand in Inigo’s eye.

“Yeah,” Cynthia said. “Father married someone different in each world. We all know who you are, you’re our older sister, but…” She shrugged.

Lucina bit her lip. “I don’t have any younger siblings. I only had Owain, my cousin, but even he looks a little different. Anyways, if all of you are from different worlds, what are you doing here in mine?”

“I hate to say it, Lucina,” Inigo spoke up this time, “but this isn’t… exactly your world. At least, it is and isn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“What Inigo is trying to say,” Kjelle continued this time, “is that the worlds have been stitched together as they fell apart, to create one world. And any people living in the world also came along. That’s why we’re all here.”

Owain managed a faint smile. “So you see, dear cousin… you are both our dear cousin and sibling, but at the same time, not.”

Lucina swallowed as she took stock of the situation. With the rundown of everyone’s parents – they all had the same mothers that she remembered, only this Owain had Father Libra as his father and the rest had of them had _her_ father, Chrom, as theirs – it was obvious that they were blood relatives.

Her own parents were dead. She had no siblings. Her _own_ cousin and aunt and all her friends were dead as well. She was afraid of letting these smiling strangers that were actually family into her life. But…

The tiniest flicker of hope inside of her, which had been all but extinguished before, started to burn again.

 _Hope will never die_. That was her motto.

“But… what about Grima, though?” she asked, hiding the anxiety in her voice. If she pretended that these were the versions of the friends that she knew, maybe she could treat them like that for now.

They all looked at each other.

Cynthia was the one that piped up first. “As far as we know, Grima’s still out there. We’re not sure which one, or if it’s all of them. Lady Tiki really wasn’t sure when she spoke to us.”

“So that means we still need to stop him, or we’re dead again,” Lucina concluded, swallowing. “…”

“And the only way to stop him is by performing the Awakening,” Inigo pointed out. “Lady Tiki said that she could perform it here in Ylisstol if we had everything.”

“Yes, but we don’t have the ingredients,” Lucina said with a grimace. “I… I sent the others to find the Gemstones, but it’s not here. And the Binding Shield was broken. UnAwakened Falchion cannot defeat him. I know this because I tried.”

“Where’s that Falchion then?” Brady asked. “Don’t see it by yer side…”

“…Shattered,” she repeated quietly. Owain clutched at the hilt of the sword by his waist.

“We still have _my_ Falchion,” he told her. “We can use that. We simply require the Binding Shield and the Gemstones, but by Naga’s grace, most of that is already covered.”

“It is?” Lucina asked.

“Correct!” Inigo beamed at her, pulling something out of his satchel. “Look! We’d managed to retrieve this back in my world before everything went to hell!”

“Azure!” Lucina gasped. That was one Gemstone…

Sure enough, Brady, Kjelle, and Cynthia all pulled out Vert, Gules, and Argent. Lucina’s eyes widened. Even if it wasn’t the exact same ones from their world, they still had _four_ of the five Gemstones.

“We’re still missing Sable, though,” Kjelle said.

“And none of us have the Binding Shield,” Cynthia pointed out. “I’m not sure that it’ll be enough.”

“Sable…” Lucina murmured to herself. “The last I heard, Sable was in Plegia. I’d… I’d sent Inigo, Brady, Owain, and Yarne there to get Sable and Argent.” Her expression dimmed. “And I’d sent Cynthia, Noire, Kjelle, and Nah to find Gules and Azure. Severa, Laurent, and Gerome were able to get me Vert and the Binding Shield just earlier, but Grima destroyed them when he ambushed us and...”

“How long ago was this?” Inigo asked softly.

“…I sent them weeks ago. Grima told me that he had killed them all, and… well, they haven’t come back,” she whispered.

Owain squeezed her shoulder. “…You said that Owain, Brady, Yarne, and Inigo of this world went to retrieve Sable. Why don’t we go retrace their steps, then?”

If nothing else, if they could at least find Sable by doing so, then… then they could at least retrieve it. Then they could worry about how to get a copy of the Binding Shield.

* * *

Lucina had armed herself with a Silver Sword that she had found in Ylisstol’s treasury. Owain had Falchion, Brady had a Mend staff as well as an axe, while Cynthia and Kjelle had lances. Inigo had, after looking intently inside, had managed to pick up a bow and set of arrows that looked like they were in good shape.

After deeming that it was _far_ too dangerous to split up – if Grima found even one of them alone, then they were sitting ducks – they had traveled towards the Ylissean-Plegian border together (or at least, where it _had_ been before Grima had made the borders meaningless).

Lucina furrowed her brow when she came across the cliff that split the border. “The bridge is out.”

Owain frowned as well, stepping closer, but not _too_ close to the edge of the cliff.

“Huh, I wasn’t expecting people here.”

All of them whirled around, staring as a girl with a wyvern landed. Though none of them appeared to recognize her, she had blond, wavy hair, and was wearing a Tactician’s cloak.

“Who are you?” Inigo asked, cautiously.

“Name’s Morgan,” the girl replied. “I haven’t seen anyone alive in so long!”

Lucina took a step forward and smiled at her. “Morgan, was it? Have you been in the area long? We’re looking for four boys that had been here.”

“Lessee… yep!” Morgan grinned back at her. “Saw four boys here! Well, three boys and a giant rabbit. Was a little shocked when I saw you all, since three of you look just like them!”

The six of them glanced at each other in shock, and Lucina tried not to get her hopes up. “Where are they now?”

Morgan’s grin grew wider, and there was something unsettling about it. “You should take a look around. They’re _right here_.”

Four shuffling forms came into view, and Lucina’s stomach dropped as she recognized the figures of Owain, Inigo, Brady, and Yarne. Their faces were blank, their eyes were red, and there were horrific injuries on all of them. The wyvern that Morgan was on was the exact same way, now that she got a closer look at it.

“Risen,” Owain – the living Owain – breathed in horror. “She turned them – us – into Risen.”

“Look out!” Lucina gasped. “She has to be with Grima!”

“Aw, how did you know?” Morgan said, giggling. “I took out those four, I can take all of you out! Go get ‘em, boys!”

* * *

Taking his alternate out hadn’t taken long at all. His alternate hadn’t even been armed with anything but a Mend staff, and a well-timed axe swing driven into Risen Brady’s side had knocked the other over. Once the other had fallen, Brady glared down at him.

“You big idiot!” he growled. “You just… you just _had_ to go and die and l-leave Lucina…! Damn you!” Brady scrubbed at his eyes, unable to hold his tears back.

“Since you ain’t here to do it, I’ll take care of her, got it?!” That was all that he would be able to do for his alternate other than making sure that he couldn’t be used as a Risen again.

* * *

Seeing himself with grey hair was odd. If he hadn’t seen the alternate versions of his friends, then he would have assumed that it was being turned into a Risen that had done that. As it was, this was clearly a version of him, and a version of him that was very willing to kill him. He tried not to vomit.

Since Risen Inigo had a sword, Inigo took care to stay away from him, using fancy footwork to keep his distance as he readied an arrow.

“Sorry chap,” Inigo whispered to Risen-Inigo, firing an arrow directly into his chest. Risen Inigo let out a strange sound before collapsing, the black smoke rising from his face, before he lay still. The living Inigo shuddered for a moment, before kneeling down and arranging his alternate’s body peacefully.

“You shouldn’t have been used like this,” he said softly. “I’ll make sure to burn your body when this is all over.” He grabbed his bow and rushing back to help his friends.

* * *

“To think that your noble visage could have been used for trickery such as this…” Owain trailed off as he blocked a blow from Risen Owain’s sword with Falchion. The Risen, of course, didn’t respond, and Owain felt a pang of pain as he recognized the name ‘Missletainn’ etched on the other’s sword.

“Don’t you worry, though! I, Owain Dark, Prince of Ylisse of an Outrealm, shall avenge you! By our blood, Owain, I swear on it!” Owain kicked at his alternate’s legs, the Risen grunting as it toppled over. Owain didn’t give Risen-Owain a chance to get up before he had shoved his sword into the other’s chest. Resisting the urge to vomit, Owain waited as the black smoke rose, indicating that the Risen was no longer active, and studied his alternate sadly.

“I don’t know what happened to you, friend,” he said quietly, picking up and setting Missletainn in the other’s hands, “but you are at peace now. And I will ensure that you remain at peace forever.”

* * *

Lucina grunted as she blocked Morgan’s axe. Behind her, she could tell that the others were going after all of the other Risen (she even saw Kjelle and Cynthia deal with Yarne out of the corner of her eye) while she dealt with Morgan. “Why? You’re still alive, you’re _young_! Why would someone like _you_ side with Grima!”

“Shut up, you don’t know a thing about Master Grima!” the girl cried out. “I-I have to, or…”

“What do you mean?” Lucina ducked another swing. “Why?”

“F-Father is…” Morgan said, trailing off, before her axe slipped from her fingers. “M-My head… it hurts…” Her axe slipped from her hands as she grabbed at her head, clutching at it in pain. “Why… why does it hurt… why does… the thought of killing you all… hurt…”

“Forgive me,” she whispered, and stabbed the girl in the stomach with her sword. Morgan _screamed_ , falling off of her wyvern, and crumpling. Lucina made sure to kill the Risen wyvern with a slice of her sword, before turning back to Morgan.

Morgan was crying, but it didn’t seem to be because of the pain. She was clutching at her stomach, and staring at the Risen – specifically, at the ones of Inigo, Brady, Owain, and Yarne, which had already been felled – with a look of utter revulsion and horror. “I… I… what have I done…?”

“It’s not too late,” Lucina told her, her heart pounding. This girl might have killed four of her best friends, but… it was clear that she had been used. There was an odd clarity in Morgan’s eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“Lucina?” Morgan suddenly called, staring up at her. “…Lucina, where are we? Why does everything hurt?” She blinked confusedly. “I… what did I _do_?”

Lucina stared at the girl. Never mind the fact that this girl recognized her – she could easily be from one of the myriad worlds that the others were from – and pulled out a Vulnerary, uncorking it. “Here, Morgan,” she said quietly.

Morgan drank down the Vulnerary greedily, wincing as the pain in her side healed. “Oww. I… really, what happened? Father… something was wrong with Father, he said that he would help me… but I don’t know what happened after that...”

She smiled back at the blond girl sadly. “Terrible things, Morgan. But it’s okay now.” Lucina stood up, and helped Morgan to her feet.

The others were gazing at her anxiously, and behind them, she could see the bodies of her four friends. Morgan clutched at her head, gazing over the living children, before her eyes landed on Owain, the living one, and they lit up. “Brother!”

Owain stared at her in confusion as she broke away from Lucina and threw her arms around him. “Owain! What’s going on? Why are you and Luci here? Why do Brady and Inigo and Kjelle and Cynthia have blue hair?”

“…Well she’s certainly different from that crazed girl that murdered us all,” Brady grumbled.

Morgan stared at him, puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

Silently, Kjelle pointed to the dead bodies. Morgan stared at them, and then at the six of them. “I… I did this…? No… I…” She touched her head again. “He… he used me…? No…”

“…I’m sorry, Morgan,” Lucina said. She didn’t know this girl at _all_ , but this girl had clearly known them in her world. She’d been used by Grima, and she was free now. And Lucina wanted to save as many people as she could, no matter what.

“We should burn the bodies,” Inigo said quietly. “So that they aren’t used again.”

“Brady and I will go find some firewood,” Kjelle said. “The rest of you… arrange them, please.”

* * *

After the pyres had been lit and the bodies burned – and oh, did it hurt Lucina that she had silently cried as she did so – the six of them had spoken to Morgan again, who was clearly ashamed about what she had done, and had explained everything that was going on.

“I… thought something was odd,” Morgan had said in the end, looking down. “But I was so desperate to have my father back, especially after losing Mother and Owain, that I just… and it let Grima control me.”

As it turned out, Morgan was the daughter of Lissa and Robin from her timeline. While that had surprised Owain, as Robin had not been his father, he had wholeheartedly accepted Morgan as his half-sister and had embraced her. None of them had been dry-eyed during the funeral, and they didn’t want to be alone anymore.

“By the way… I’ve been holding onto this for a long time,” Morgan admitted, pulling out Sable. “…My Lucina told me that we needed to keep these safe. I’m not sure why Grima didn’t take it from me.”

Something akin to relief crashed into Lucina. Neither of her four friends from this timeline had been carrying Sable, even though they had gone to retrieve it, and all she could conclude was that it had been stolen by Grima. She didn’t know if Morgan’s Sable was the one from this timeline or from Morgan’s, but either way, it was the one that they needed.

“Thank you so much, Morgan,” Lucina breathed. “We just need to get the Binding Shield now, and then we can ask Lady Tiki to perform the Awakening.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about what could have happened to that, would you, Morgan?” Cynthia asked. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” Morgan said, shaking her head. “I really don’t.”

Owain squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t fret, sister. As we located you and Sable, so shall we locate the Binding Shield.”

That was right.

* * *

However, tracking down the Binding Shield had proved to be harder than they had expected.

After scouring the countryside for _weeks_ , without any sort of reprieve or hint as to where it could be, they were all trying in vain not to lose hope as they slowly grew more and more exhausted with each passing day.

“We should rest,” Owain said finally, panting. “My bones have become brittle and my body aches to fall into the embrace of the warm void of sleep…”

“There’s a building over there,” Inigo suggested. “If it’s free from Risen, we can possibly go inside and sit for a few minutes. I don’t… want to get caught out in the open.”

Lucina didn’t want to rest, didn’t want to wait since they hadn’t found the Binding Shield and the longer they took, the more likely it would be for Grima to figure out what they were up to. But she took a look at all their faces, how exhausted they looked.

In truth, she felt exhausted too.

“Alright,” she finally said. “We can go in there and rest for a little bit, and eat something from our packs.”

Gratefully, her new band of exhausted Exalted children slipped inside of the building, collapsing in a room not too far from the front entrance with each other.

Lucina slid down to the floor between Owain and Inigo. Morgan had crawled into Owain’s lap and had fallen asleep against him, head resting on his chest, and he had his arms loosely around her as he lightly dozed. Lucina smiled at the two of them, and glanced over at Inigo, who appeared just as tired as she was.

“How are you, sister?” he asked her.

Gods, it was weird to be called ‘sister’, but all four of them had been calling her that. “Tired,” she admitted. “In truth, I…” She trailed off, and looked over at the others. Kjelle and Cynthia were curled against each other – the two had always been good friends even when not related – and Brady was already snoring. “I don’t know what I would have done had the five of you not shown up. I was ready to give up.”

Inigo reached out and took her hand in his, but he didn’t look at her. This Inigo was different, Lucina noted. He didn’t flirt – but then again, he was technically related to every girl here. And he was more thoughtful, more quiet, and smiled more often.

“That was how I felt,” Inigo admitted to her. “When I found myself completely alone, my own sister, cousin, and friends dead, with nothing but Azure by my side. What could I do with one Gemstone? I’m sure that the others felt the same way as well when they found themselves in their situations.” He gestured to them.

“That I did,” Owain muttered sleepily. His head had fallen against Lucina’s shoulder. “I had nothing but Falchion in my head and the words of a dying cousin telling me to run. And then Lady Tiki contacted me through our blood pact, telling us that we couldn’t give up.”

“And then we started finding each other,” Inigo said, his expression soft. “Cynthia and I found each other, Kjelle and Brady found each other, and then we found Owain, and once we all met up, we learned from Lady Tiki the story of what was going on. And then Owain found you. Even if you aren’t the sister that I remember… you’re still my sister.”

Lucina wrapped her arms around both their shoulders, and hugged them close. “And you’re still my cousin and my brother,” she said softly. “I’ve never had younger siblings before.” She brushed a lock of Inigo’s hair aside, and kissed his forehead. “But I’ll do my best with the four of you.”

Inigo smiled at her, and it was one of his more genuine smiles. It still hurt, remembering that _her_ world’s Inigo was dead, but she still _this_ Inigo to take care of, as well as _these_ Kjelle, Brady, Cynthia, and Owain. And Morgan, of course.

“And I’ll assist, of course,” Owain said, cracking one eye open this time. “I have my lovely, amazing sister, Morgan, and the best cousins that one could ask for.”

Inigo snuggled against her side and placed his head on her other shoulder, and Lucina felt at ease for the first time, her eyes starting to close – but no, she had to stay awake.

“You guys can sleep,” a voice spoke up, and she glanced over at Kjelle and Cynthia. The two were still awake. Cynthia had been the one that had spoken. “Kjelle and I will keep watch and make sure no Risen get in. Brady said he’ll keep watch next, so we’ll wake him in a few hours.”

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, closing her eyes. She rested her head against Owain’s, holding both Owain and Inigo close to her.

* * *

The moment that Lucina had heard the clanging sounds, her eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet. Beside her, Morgan had flown out of Owain’s lap and both Owain and Inigo had stood up as well. Brady was already clutching at his axe and staff, while Kjelle and Cynthia eyed the exits to the room warily.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“I think we have company,” Kjelle hissed. “And… it sounds like Risen!”

Lucina’s stomach lurched. Had Grima finally found them?

Beside her, Inigo had notched an arrow on his bow, his lips thin as he studied the exits of the room, while Owain readied Falchion. Morgan, who still had her axe, clutched at it with both hands.

“We have to get out of here,” Lucina breathed. “If we’re still inside of here when they find us, then they could trap us here.”

The kids bolted for the closest exits, but a shriek from Cynthia made them stop. Lucina turned around, and her blood ran cold.

If she didn’t know better, she would say that Cynthia was fighting some kind of distorted mirror. But, as she studied the pair, the identical Pegasi, the identical girls, aside from hair color… her heart sank. This was _her_ Cynthia.

“Damn,” she heard an unfamiliar voice say, and she found herself staring a boy in Tactician’s robes, with a tome in his hand. Just like her and her half-siblings, he had blue hair, though if she had to pick one of her half-siblings and cousin for this kid to look the most like, it was actually Morgan. “I wasn’t expecting visitors like this.”

Speaking of Morgan, the girl was frowning in confusion. “I think I know that voice, but at the same time… I-I think that’s someone else that Grima kidnapped.”

The explanation as to _why_ Grima had randomly kidnapped Morgan and this boy was going to be something for later, but at the moment, all that they could do was make sure to stay alive. Lucina dove into the fray.

* * *

Cynthia, who had been the first to face-off with her Risen counterpart, was trying not to shriek with horror like she had last time. It had been one thing to see the alternates of Owain, Inigo, Brady, and Yarne being used as Risen, but this was _herself_. She could see the injuries on her alternate’s body, the way that she had clearly been toyed with before being killed, as well as her mother’s lance and Pegasus (which Inigo had already shot down with his bow).

“Sorry, other Cynthia!” she said, flying higher up. “You’d probably be a cool sister if I knew you, but I’m afraid I can’t join you just yet!”

She spun her lance, and just as Risen Cynthia started to turn to meet her, Cynthia dove down, driving the lance through where her alternate’s heart would be. Risen Cynthia crumpled to the ground, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She leapt off her Pegasus and arranged her alternate as she fell, sighing as she brushed a lock of her hair aside.

* * *

“Staring at you is like staring at my worst nightmare,” Kjelle admitted to Risen Kjelle, blocking one of her swipes with her own lance. Risen Kjelle didn’t respond, backing up so that she could attack her living counterpart again.

She wouldn’t admit she was scared. Never.

The fact that this girl could very well have been _her_ instead of an alternate of her… well, it was something that Kjelle didn’t really want to think about. That was how she was – she put on the Knight armor to hide her small and fragile she really was on the inside.

The Knight armor was hard to penetrate, so Kjelle waited for her opportunity, and when a whack from Brady’s axe knocked Risen Kjelle over, Kjelle jammed her lance into Risen Kjelle’s throat, before quickly turning away as the smoke rose out, not wanting to see ‘herself’ in her last moments. “…”

* * *

Owain and Morgan had thankfully taken care of Nah and Noire, though this had left Lucina to try to deal with the blue-haired boy. He had multiple spells in his tome, and it was taking Lucina everything she had to be able to keep up with him.

“You’re not the first kid that we’ve encountered working for Grima!” Lucina called out to him, wondering if, like Morgan, he was under Grima’s control. “So why are you doing this?”

The boy opened his mouth. “Elthunder!” he shouted, and Lucina barely was able to shove herself out of the way as a bolt of lightning nearly hit her, gripping at her sword. “You don’t understand! Mother is… Mother…!”

“That’s not your mother!” Morgan screamed, and Lucina caught her running up to them out of the corner of her eye. “He’s tricking you, just like he tricked me!”

“You? You… betrayed Master Grima… but…” The boy was hesitating now, and Lucina felt her heart pounding. Were they getting through to him? If they could save this boy from Grima too… the Fell Dragon had been weakened and they’d managed to free Morgan…

“Hey,” Lucina said, and he turned towards her. “Can you tell me your name?”

His fingers trembled, and he nearly dropped the tome in his hands. “Morgan. My name’s Morgan.”

The girl Morgan beside her blinked, and Lucina stared at him for a moment longer. Was it possible that the two Morgans were alternates of each other that Grima had sunk his claws into? She smiled at him regardless, despite not letting her guard down. “Morgan? That’s a good name. What about your family? Can you tell me about them?” If her theory was right…

The boy Morgan shook a little bit. “I… my father’s name was Chrom. My mother’s name was Robin…”

Lucina blinked. So in his world, Robin and Morgan were different genders. A flicker of amusement went through her at the thought of her father marrying Robin – a lot of jokes had happened when they were younger about how Lucina technically had a third parent in Robin – but that didn’t matter right now.

The boy was still speaking. “And… and my sister, Lu…” He stared at her for a moment. “…L-Lucina? Sister? Is that you?”

Theory confirmed. “That’s right, Morgan. I’m Lucina, your big sister.” She wasn’t his _original_ big sister, but she already had two little brothers, two little sisters, and two cousins. She would be happy to add one more little brother to the mix.

He shook his head in confusion, clarity coming back to his eyes as Grima’s hold on him weakened. “I… I…” His tome fell out of his hands, and Owain, who had been nearby, quickly snatched it up, making him jump.

“C’mere, Morgan,” Lucina called to him. “Let me hold you for a little bit.”

He shook once more, and—he darted forward, throwing himself into Lucina’s arms. “L-Luci, I’m sorry! I-I don’t know why I was…”

“Shhh…” She squeezed him against her, ignoring the bodies of her four remaining friends on the ground. “It’s okay, Morgan. I’m here.”

Thank Naga that they were able to save him from Grima.

* * *

Like the last time, they had made sure to burn the bodies of Lucina’s friends so that they couldn’t be used as Risen again. It had been painful enough for all of them as it was, but especially for Lucina, and also for the boy Morgan (who had decided that he was going to go by the name Marc so that they could separate him from the girl Morgan; apparently he had done so at one point. When Lucina asked the girl Morgan whether she had done something similar, she had just shrugged in confusion and said ‘no’).

The two Morgans had also switched weapons, neither wanting to use the weapon that they had murdered other people with.

“I was always better with a tome, anyways,” Morgan confessed, glancing over at her male counterpart-slash-cousin.

“…Yeah, I prefer an axe over tomes,” Marc agreed. “Probably for the best that we switch!”

Lucina tried not to let her anxiety fill her. While it was nice that they had saved Marc from Grima’s influence just like with Morgan, they still didn’t have the Binding Shield to place the Gemstones on, and she said as thus.

“Binding Shield…?” Marc muttered. “What did it look like?”

“It was golden, with five slots that something the size of these Gemstones could fit in,” Lucina explained, as Inigo held up Azure to show him. “We need it so that we can stop Grima for good.”

Marc stared at them. “…You mean, that big shield I was carrying around and had to set down in one of the rooms?”

 _What_.

Sure enough, when they ran into the room that Marc had led them to, he held up a familiar, golden shield. It was scuffed and dinged, but it was still the Binding Shield.

Lucina felt a wave of relief crash over her. “We did it! We finally have the whole Fire Emblem!”

“Now we just have to be careful,” Owain said. “And ensure that no forces of darkness take them from us as we head back to Ylisstol to request Lady Tiki’s aid.”

* * *

As they all headed back to Ylisstol, Lucina knew that this was crazy.

They were a group of teenagers that barely knew each other (even if they were comfortable with each other by now), and clearly favored _enough_ by Naga given that they were members of the Exalted line that had survived.

Cynthia, while bright and chipper and capable of charging on her own, always preferred to let Lucina or Chrom do the leading. In this case, she was letting Lucina and the others take most of the lead.

Brady had grumbled that, despite his axefaire, he was more of a healer, not a fighter, like his aunts, and Lucina had couldn’t help but feel affectionate towards him about that. It took a lot of courage to be a beacon of peace instead of a herald of war.

Kjelle, again, was the sort that preferred to take orders and carry them out instead of giving out the orders herself. Some people were just like that, and Kjelle did tend to think before she leapt, at least, no matter how quiet she was.

Inigo… was so shy that sometimes Lucina was surprised he was able to speak at all. Still, he supposed being born a Prince in his world had given him a tiny bit more self-confidence than he normally would have, and she quickly realized that he had a good head on his shoulders.

The Morgans… the two Morgans were the youngest of them all. Lucina wanted to protect them from the world, of having to carry the weight of being some of Naga’s Chosen and former puppets of Grima on their shoulders, and she could tell that the others did, too. Owain in particular was protective of his ‘half-sister’, and Lucina tried to dote on her ‘half-brother’.

And then there was Owain himself, the alternate of her beloved cousin. He was quieter as well, more thoughtful, and while he still spoke in that ridiculous manner most of the time, he still knew exactly what to say to cheer her up. He helped her look after their younger siblings, and Lucina often found herself seeking his company out.

As time had passed, she felt more and more like she was _truly_ their sibling or cousin, and that they were all her father’s and aunt’s children. She laughed with them and joked with them in an effort to keep their spirits up. She watched Cynthia, Morgan, and Marc talk about forming a Justice Cabal like her Owain and Cynthia had. She watched Owain bicker with Inigo, occasionally tackling the other to the ground and scuffling before Kjelle would break them apart. Brady would burst into tears whenever one of them mentioned something sad and the culprit would have to awkwardly apologize to him.

The affection for the seven of them had only grown when Lucina realized that, like with her own friends, she was the oldest of them all. In a way, she _was_ responsible for them, no matter how capable they were of taking care of themselves, as if they really _were_ her little siblings and cousins. Owain helped her a lot, as he was only about a year younger than her, but all of the others were _much_ younger.

Lucina didn’t know if they were going to survive this; the chances of their survival were extremely low, and yet what else could they do? Even fleeing to another Outrealm from this conjoined world wasn’t an option even if they had decided to forsake the responsibility and the Dragon’s Gate could be opened, as if Grima wasn’t stopped, he would eventually find other Outrealms, including the hypothetical one that they had fled to.

They just had to get back to Ylisstol, Lucina told herself. Then they could speak with Lady Tiki, and if any of them could get Awakened, they would, and then… if they won, she could decide what to do next.

She glanced down at the Binding Shield in his hands, still empty as they hadn’t wanted to risk Grima tracking them down by assembling a complete Fire Emblem. When all this was over and if they had survived, she wondered what would happen next.

* * *

Their journey back had been made easier as, with the worlds still collapsing and being stitched together into one, they found more and more people – people that had been some of the only survivors in their world were already starting to band together in makeshift camps, just like the Exalted family had, and were happy to help out the traveling children.

And with people, there were animals as well, and after finding two horses, a black Pegasus, and a griffon (which Kjelle, Inigo, Morgan, and Marc had taken a liking to respectively), they had been able to make much better ground on the way back to Ylisstol.

Now, in the palace, Lucina set the Binding Shield on the ground as her half-siblings and cousins brought the Gemstones and Falchion.

“Right,” Lucina breathed, “all we can do now is assemble the Fire Emblem and call forth Lady Tiki. If Nah was here, then she could have done that, but… I’m a little afraid to assemble it without knowing if we’ll be heard.” The fact that once they reassembled the Fire Emblem, they would be exposed to Grima, lingered on everyone’s minds.

Finally, Owain spoke up. “…As my father was one of the Nagalyte Brethren that regularly convened with the Lady Naga, I may have the best chance out of us all. Father had taught me all of the hymns and prayers before he passed from these cruel worlds.”

Lucina gave him a small smile. “We’ll leave it to you, then, Owain. Please do your best.”

“I intend to, cousin.” He grimaced, but he cleared a spot for himself, perching on Naga’s symbol on his knees, hands clasped in prayer, and closed his eyes.

As Owain prayed, Lucina ran her finger down Falchion, the blade gleaming under the light. It was Owain’s version of Falchion, true, but the fact that it still seemed sharp (touching the edge nearly pricked her finger) meant that it still responded to her, which gave her a tiny bit of hope. If Owain could get in contact with Lady Naga or Tiki, then they would be able to Awaken it.

Several minutes went by, with the children talking amongst themselves, and debating whether they should assemble the Fire Emblem, but wanting to give Owain more time to contact Lady Tiki. After some quiet discussion, they had unanimously agreed that _Lucina_ would be the one to perform the Awakening.

“Me?” Lucina repeated. All of the self-doubt that she had been feeling before she had met her half-siblings and cousins came flying back to her as if they had never left. “I failed once, though… it was only because of you all that we managed to gather everything.”

“Perhaps, but you are the one that still led us, Sister,” Inigo pointed out to her. “And as we said, you’re the best candidate for this.”

“Yeah, so shush and accept it already!” Brady told her with a grumble.

Owain’s eyes flew open, and he looked stunned for a moment, before whispering, “Lady Tiki is here.”

 _“Welcome, children of Naga,”_ Tiki said, before her apparition appeared before the assembled children. Owain was still kneeling on Naga’s symbol, and the rest of the children quickly followed suit by dropping to their knees. _“Oh no, please don’t tell me that with my mother’s passing, you are treating me like her.”_

Lucina sheepishly smiled at her. “My apologies, Lady Tiki, we just…” She trailed off.

 _“I understand,”_ Tiki said with a smile. _“You’re all so frightened, but you have all done well despite the circumstances. Alone, you may have stood little chance, but together, with all of your strengths, you have prevailed. You have the ingredients for the Fire Emblem, and you have Falchion by your side. If you would please assemble, we could start the Awakening ceremony. But be warned: as soon as you assemble it, we must move fast, as Grima will detect its energies and come here immediately.”_

“Um, Lady Tiki, I hate to ask, but… _which_ Grima?” Cynthia said, fingering one of her pigtails with nervousness. “There’re a lot of worlds that were combined, so that probably means that there’s a big number of Grimas…”

Tiki gave them a faint smile. “Not all of the Grimas survived the destabilization of the worlds. After I stitched the timelines of your worlds together to form one, cohesive timeline, many of the Grimas destabilized themselves and stitched _themselves_ together into one to survive.”

“So…” Kjelle said slowly. “That means that the Grima we meet…”

“ _Will recognize all of you as the Ylissean royal family without confusion, unfortunately,_ ” Tiki told them. “ _Which is a sign that you must act fast. They would delight in toying with you if they can, and I don’t want to see any of you hurt._ ” For a moment, Tiki’s expression wavered, and Lucina remembered that this was _not_ Naga, but Naga’s daughter, who had always been lonely according to the legends. “ _I don’t wish to see any of my brothers and sisters fall. You are all I have._ ”

Something warm went through Lucina’s heart at her endearment. “We won’t fall, Lady Tiki. You have our word.” She would certainly do her best to keep it.

“ _Then step forth, assemble the Fire Emblem, and complete the Awakening, dear Lucina_.” Tiki gave her a gentle smile, and Lucina took a deep breath and looked at her friends.

“It’s time,” Owain said softly, and he presented Falchion to her as the others started assembling the Fire Emblem.

She took the sword from his hands and gripped at it tightly. The last person to slot a Gemstone, Cynthia, hesitated for just a moment. She met everyone’s eyes, before slipping Argent in. The energy flowed out of the Fire Emblem, and Lucina immediately invoked the incantation, drilled into her head over the years, only modified to fit their specific situation.

_"Hear me, Tiki! I bear proof of our sacred covenant! In the name of the exalted blood, I ask for the divine dragon’s power! Baptize me in fire, that I may become your true sister!”_

Lucina wanted to scream at the others to stand back as the divine fire surrounded her, but her _stupid stubborn family_ didn’t, instead, gripping at her shoulders, giving her their strength, gritting their teeth against the fires.

_“Be welcome, Awakeners. Your heart has been tested and deemed worthy. Cleansed in my fire, your desire has proven to burn the stronger."_

…Awakener _s_?

She caught sight of Morgan’s stunned face, the one closest to her, and of Owain and Inigo and Brady and Kjelle and Cynthia and Marc—

All of them seemed _refreshed_ somehow, and there appeared to be some kind of power coursing through them, making their Brands glow even through their clothing (she hadn’t even realized that the others had Brands outside of Inigo and Owain, but the proof was there).

The fires had just started to die down when they heard it.

**_“What have you done?!”_ **

The eight children sprang apart, Lucina clutching Falchion while the others readied their weapons. While they were in better shape than they had been due to all of them performing the Awakening ceremony, the fact remained that they still needed to keep Grima from Lucina.

 ** _“First you take the Morgans from me,”_** and here, both Morgan and Marc flinched, **_“And now you have performed the Awakening. No matter, though, you will have to get past your little friends first if you want to get to me.”_**

Sure enough, Lucina’s bad feeling was justified when she saw, amongst the Risen, the shambling corpses of Laurent, Severa, and Gerome. If they got out of this alive, she would definitely burn their bodies just to be safe, but…

“Go!” She screamed, and the eight children converged on them, Owain only stooping to grab Lucina’s Silver Sword to use.

Taking down the Risen versions of their friends took little time at all. None of the three had been in very good shape, and the quicker they were taken down, the less Risen they would have to face and the quicker that their friends could go back to resting.

Lucina herself clawed her way towards Grima, with the others surrounding her and attempting to carve a path for her, as the Fell Dragon sent Expiration Spikes everywhere. Miraculously (whether it was through their own skill or through divine intervention), they missed everyone and Grima was shrieking in frustration.

No one but Lucina noticed it, but as she swung her blade towards Grima, the Fell Dragon’s own arm grabbed the arm that was going to cast Expiration and shoved it down, and, even though she couldn’t see his face through the smoke, she heard a different voice come from him. _“Do it, Lucina!”_

 ** _“No! No no no! Damn you!”_** Grima yelled. **_“I won’t… agh…!”_**

Without hesitating, Lucina struck, the Falchion sliding into the Fell Dragon’s body and light exploded through the room as Grima screamed.

When it all dimmed down, Grima was gone. The remaining Risen, like puppets whose strings had been cut, dropped to the floor. The rest of the children quickly took care of them in case they rose again, before Owain approached Lucina.

“Did… did we do it?” he asked.

 _“You did.”_ Tiki was back, and she was smiling at them warmly. _“Thank you, brothers and sisters. You have managed to save the world.”_

“Not without so many losses along the way,” Lucina murmured, glancing around. Her eyes landed on Severa, Gerome, and Laurent’s bodies, a mere drop of the number of people that had died. _Everyone_ of their friends in all eight of their worlds had likely died, as well as many, many civilians and soldiers and _their parents_.

 _“It is regrettable,”_ Tiki admitted, and she genuinely did look sad. “ _But all of you, and all of them, will be remembered as Heroes, who refused to leave Naga’s side in their worlds’ darkest hours.”_ Her expression softened. _“Now, I believe that the eight of you have a saved world to enjoy. Go out there and enjoy it.”_

Lucina wanted to cry, but she instead grabbed Owain and Inigo – the two closest to her – and pulled them into a hug. “Thank you, Lady Tiki… thank you so much.”

* * *

Rebuilding Ylisse was not going to be easy.

All of the involved worlds were so deeply intertwined that when they had succeeded, Tiki had deemed it too dangerous to separate the worlds. The only one who had seemed to completely understand her explanation was the version of Laurent that had turned up after Grima's death, who had tried to explain it to the rest of them.

(No one was sure which of the intertwined worlds Laurent had originally belonged to; Laurent himself was either not sure, or refused to tell anyone the identity of his father. The only clue that they had was his hair color, which they recognized as his mother’s, and as Lucina already knew that this wasn’t _her_ Laurent despite the same hair, as she had burned his and the others’ bodies, they speculated that he’d come from yet another world where _none_ of the Exalted family had survived.)

Regardless, Laurent had claimed that he had been traveling alone for far too long, and that if they were willing to have him, he was happy to stay and help them rebuild.

They’d found other versions of the others as well – a version of Severa, Gerome (and his wyvern Minerva), Nah, Noire, and Yarne. Evidence suggested that they were all from different worlds completely, and apparently, _no two people_ were from the same world. Still, they were glad for the familiarity, and aside from the odd fact that more than of them were related to each other now, it almost felt like they were whole again.

The eight Exalted children and their friends got to work with rebuilding Ylisse. Laurent, Noire, Morgan, and Marc researched both cultivation and magical construction spells amongst whatever had survived, and they were able to get the castle in Ylisstol rebuilt and a small garden of vegetables and fruit growing. From there, they housed any civilians that they found until they were able to build houses in the city, and Ylisse simply expanded from there.

The eight of them remained very close after that, and considered themselves one large family. Lucina loved spending time with her new brothers and sisters, only regretful that she had had no siblings originally, and Owain and Morgan were as close as siblings could be as well.

One day, Lucina found herself on top of the balcony in the newly-rebuilt castle, staring out into the city. While the city was still expanding, and they still had a _long_ way to go before the world would become fully inhabitable again with a good population of people, things were getting there.

She glanced down at the courtyard and smiled. Inigo and Kjelle were training some new members of the Shepherds on how to ride horses, while Cynthia and Morgan were giving Pegasus-flying lessons. Gerome and Minerva were relaxing to one side, while Nah and Yarne entertained several young children by giving them dragon and bunny rides. Noire and Severa were chatting with each other while sitting on a stone wall, while Marc brushed his griffon’s fur affectionately.

They had nearly been wiped out, but the Exalted family, Naga’s bloodline, managed to live on and eke an existence out for themselves.

“A wonderful vision for the eyes, isn’t it?”

Lucina turned around to find that Owain had joined her on the balcony. Her cousin leaned against the railing, looking down onto the courtyard as well, and she took a moment to wonder that he wasn’t afraid of heights like her _other_ cousin had been.

As the two oldest living members of the royal family, they had taken up most of the responsibility, trying to guide their younger siblings on the right path and leading Ylisse and quite possibly the rest of the world (though reports from Valm said that a member of Chon’sin’s royal family could have possibly survived; if true, Lucina hoped to be able to have a diplomatic chat with them sometime soon).

“It really is,” she agreed, turning back to the scene that she was watching. “I never thought that this would be possible, especially after… what had happened.”

“And yet here we are, having vanquished the infinite darkness from the world, rebuilding it as if we were but characters in a fairytale,” Owain told her. “Not the storybook ending we had hoped for, but the storybook ending that we’d been given.”

“Yeah.” She slipped her hand into her cousin’s and squeezed it.

Owain gave her that goofy smile, the one that she had sorely missed seeing, and she smiled back at him and leaned against his shoulder.

She missed her parents and her dear friends terribly, but… she wasn’t alone. She had her brothers, her sisters, and her cousins. And for that, she was glad.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Lucina and Owain:** Their relationship is implied to be platonic, given that they are related, but… well, I mean, I guess I can’t stop you if you want to see it another way.
> 
>  **Lucina’s World:** The children from Lucina’s world all had unnamed NPCs as their fathers (they still exist in The Future Past with their default hair color if their mother is unmarried in the game). Lucina’s mother was the Village Maiden, whom I named Imogen here. Robin did not marry and thus Morgan was never born in her world.
> 
>  **The Morgans:** Implied to be the same ones from The Future Past 1 and The Future Past 2.
> 
>  **Surviving Non-Exalted Children:** Fathers are being left ambiguous because I honestly can’t pick; the only certainty is that they’re not the same ones from the Exalted children’s worlds.
> 
>  **Lucina, Owain, Inigo, and F!Morgan:** They get the most screentime because they're my favorites.
> 
>  **Final Classes:** Lucina – Great Lord. Owain – Swordmaster. Inigo – Bow Knight. Brady – War Monk. Cynthia – Falcon Knight. Kjelle – Great Knight. F!Morgan – Dark Flier. M!Morgan – Griffon Rider.


End file.
